Ileana LaGrutta September 24, 2014 EDC 102H A Personal Expertise Statement
Everyone is good at something; everyone has a certain “calling” in life that is truly what they are meant to do. I could speak about how I’m an expert on the game of basketball but I do not want to bore everyone with yet another basketball story. I’d actually much rather focus on writing. I understand that this is kind of ironic claiming that I’m an expert on writing when indeed I am writing a paper right now, but I’m going to go for it anyway. I am not going to sit here and pretend that I am the best writer in the world. In fact, I know that I am not. I fully understand that my rough drafts usually are a little bit shaky and could use some revising. However, I have learned a lot over the past few years about writing that I believe has made me an expert on this topic. More specifically, I believe that I am an expert on creative, or informal, writing.
During my Junior and Senior years of high school I took two creative writing courses. These courses have provided me with the necessary tools to continue on to higher education. During Creative Writing, a huge focus was on the college essay. I drafted my college essay probably close to twenty times and each time I learned a little more about writing than I already knew. First, when creatively writing, it is important to defy the traditional structure. Gone are the days where you should have an introduction of 4-5 sentences, a body paragraph or two between 5-10 sentences and a conclusion of 5-6 sentences. Sure it is definitely important to have an introduction and conclusion but what you do in between is totally up to you. Structure is reserved for formal writing and it should definitely be utilized then, but in terms of creative writing, anything but the norm is highly encouraged.
Along with defying structure, I have also learned that dialogue is your friend. As my teacher would always say, “show, don’t tell.” Instead of telling the reader that it was hot out, you could throw in dialogue between two people expressing how absolutely disgusting it is outside in the mid July heat. To take it one step further, you could even physically describe the characters to convey your point. Showing, rather than telling, is an extremely important component of creative writing. With that being said, I am going to say with confidence that I can take a story that I have lived through, and put it down on paper while still conveying all of the excitement that occurred exactly when it was happening. I also believe that I can take my expertise and apply it to the future.
There is not going to be much room for creative writing in college, however I do have plans of becoming a guidance counselor in the future. One major component of the profession is writing letters of recommendation for students. No college wants to receive a mundane letter simply listing all of the positive attributes of the student being described; they do not want it to be a laundry list of extra-curriculars. These colleges want to read something that is out of the ordinary, and I believe that my expertise in creative writing will be able to do just that. My letters are not going to be cookie-cutter letters with an "insert name here" format, but rather they will be personalized according to each student and their strengths and weaknesses. After all, it was my creative college essay that got me into college, so who’s to say that my creative letters of recommendation cannot help other students get into college?
My personal expertise is definitely creative writing. Whether it is “showing, not telling” incorporating dialogue, or defying traditional structure, I know quite a bit about the subject. Informal/creative writing is something that I enjoy doing thoroughly and it is a skill that I will be able to take with me throughout my entire life.
September 24, 2014
EDC 102H
A Personal Expertise Statement
Everyone is good at something; everyone has a certain “calling” in life that is truly what they are meant to do. I could speak about how I’m an expert on the game of basketball but I do not want to bore everyone with yet another basketball story. I’d actually much rather focus on writing. I understand that this is kind of ironic claiming that I’m an expert on writing when indeed I am writing a paper right now, but I’m going to go for it anyway.
I am not going to sit here and pretend that I am the best writer in the world. In fact, I know that I am not. I fully understand that my rough drafts usually are a little bit shaky and could use some revising. However, I have learned a lot over the past few years about writing that I believe has made me an expert on this topic. More specifically, I believe that I am an expert on creative, or informal, writing.
During my Junior and Senior years of high school I took two creative writing courses. These courses have provided me with the necessary tools to continue on to higher education. During Creative Writing, a huge focus was on the college essay. I drafted my college essay probably close to twenty times and each time I learned a little more about writing than I already knew. First, when creatively writing, it is important to defy the traditional structure. Gone are the days where you should have an introduction of 4-5 sentences, a body paragraph or two between 5-10 sentences and a conclusion of 5-6 sentences. Sure it is definitely important to have an introduction and conclusion but what you do in between is totally up to you. Structure is reserved for formal writing and it should definitely be utilized then, but in terms of creative writing, anything but the norm is highly encouraged.
Along with defying structure, I have also learned that dialogue is your friend. As my teacher would always say, “show, don’t tell.” Instead of telling the reader that it was hot out, you could throw in dialogue between two people expressing how absolutely disgusting it is outside in the mid July heat. To take it one step further, you could even physically describe the characters to convey your point. Showing, rather than telling, is an extremely important component of creative writing. With that being said, I am going to say with confidence that I can take a story that I have lived through, and put it down on paper while still conveying all of the excitement that occurred exactly when it was happening. I also believe that I can take my expertise and apply it to the future.
There is not going to be much room for creative writing in college, however I do have plans of becoming a guidance counselor in the future. One major component of the profession is writing letters of recommendation for students. No college wants to receive a mundane letter simply listing all of the positive attributes of the student being described; they do not want it to be a laundry list of extra-curriculars. These colleges want to read something that is out of the ordinary, and I believe that my expertise in creative writing will be able to do just that. My letters are not going to be cookie-cutter letters with an "insert name here" format, but rather they will be personalized according to each student and their strengths and weaknesses. After all, it was my creative college essay that got me into college, so who’s to say that my creative letters of recommendation cannot help other students get into college?
My personal expertise is definitely creative writing. Whether it is “showing, not telling” incorporating dialogue, or defying traditional structure, I know quite a bit about the subject. Informal/creative writing is something that I enjoy doing thoroughly and it is a skill that I will be able to take with me throughout my entire life.